Aaron on Glavine: 'You Have to Be Gracious Enough to Step Aside'

It happens. Guys such as Tom Glavine spend much of their baseball careers shining brighter than the sun. Then, when nearly everything surrounding their stardom begins to dim near the end, they just won't leave.

They don't want anybody to push them, either.

Hank Aaron wasn't one of those guys.

"Believe me, I was ready to retire, and the game went on, just like it did after Babe Ruth retired and when Willie Mays retired, and it's going to continue that way whether folks realize it or not," said Aaron, 75, baseball's legitimate home-run king, chuckling during an exclusive interview with FanHouse. He has spent the last three decades or so as an Atlanta Braves executive, a noted philanthropist through his Chasing the Dream Foundation and an eternal straight-shooter on all sorts of things.

On this day, the subject was two-fold: Glavine's noisy disapproval of the Braves' whacking him and his Hall of Fame arm out of nowhere this week, and why it is so difficult for great players without overwhelming health issues to drift quietly into retirement -- you know, like Aaron, who nevertheless understands the mindset of Glavine and others during these situations.

Let's start with Aaron's departure. "The year that I said I wanted to leave (1976), everything was drained out of me at that time," Aaron said. "Everything. I had been through literally hell during the last two and half years of my career, with all of the newspaper articles and with folks saying this and saying that and doing all sorts of different things toward me. I was just absolutely worn out."

Remember? Courtesy of Aaron's storied pursuit and passing of Ruth's 714, he was a target of hate mail and death threats. He finished the last two of his 23 years in the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers after he built his legacy with the Braves of Milwaukee and Atlanta. "I've never said this before, but the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I was traded to the Brewers, and I was able to go to Sun City, Ariz., for spring training," Aaron said. "That's a retirement area for people 75 and older, and I got me an apartment there, and I swear: I never came out. The only thing I did was train and go home, so that tells you I was ready to go.

"A lot of players believe their careers can go on and on and on and on. They believe that it won't end at some point, and that is not the case. Your legs get worn out. Your arm that used to throw balls 90 mph. Hey, those balls don't get to the plate as fast. The bases you used to steal, they're just not there."

According to Braves officials, a future for Glavine on the field with their suddenly gasping franchise just isn't there, either. This is a team that had a record 14 consecutive trips to the playoffs, but it hasn't gone that far in four years. The Braves are barely a .500 bunch these days in a National League East, where the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets are sliding farther north of Atlanta in the standings.

That means those who run the Braves can't afford too many mistakes, and they definitely can't afford to live on sentimentality.

So this made sense: Although Glavine threw 11 consecutive scoreless innings during his two rehabilitation starts, Braves officials said they didn't like what they saw of their 43-year-old finesse pitcher recovering from shoulder and elbow issues. As a result, they took away Glavine's tentatively scheduled start on Sunday at Turner Field against the Milwaukee Brewers, and they gave it to 22-year-old Tommy Hanson, supposedly the Braves' next Cy Maddux, Cy Smoltz and Cy Glavine. Hanson was a work-in-progress during his debut (six earned runs and six hits in six innings), but he was impressive during early spurts of the Braves' eventual 8-7 victory.

Yeah, this made sense for the Braves, but Glavine says otherwise, of course. He loathed the timing of it all. The day after he baffled Triple-A competition on Tuesday, he was called into a Braves meeting with team president John Schuerholz, general manager Frank Wren and manager Bobby Cox. That's when Glavine got his fateful news. He called a press conference blasting Braves hierarchy. He said they wanted him to fail in rehabilitation to make their transition to Hanson easier. He said he was cut for financial reasons since he would make $4.5 million this season through incentives.

Schuerholz later issued a public apology for not letting Glavine know how much he meant to "our franchise" and "to the game of baseball."

To which Aaron cringed.

"I wouldn't have said anything if I were John Schuerholz. I think that was a mistake, because it was a no-win situation in his case, as much as [Schuerholz] tried to patch up the differences," Aaron said. Then he laughed, adding, "This is the first time I've ever been on management's side. I mean, Glavine got paid very well through the years to play here, and there's never a good way to handle these situations. But if you're the Braves, you've got to throw those kids out there and let them pitch. If you're Glavine, you have to be gracious enough to step aside."

Why don't the Glavines of any sport do so? "The hardest thing for anybody -- especially athletes -- is to wake up in the morning and realize everything has stopped for them," Aaron said. "The cheering. The booing. The traveling. All the things that you used to be doing are no longer there, and it's hard for you to realize that, along with the idea of losing all of the money that I made. It's just not there any more.

"Since the most I made was [$240,000 over two years], I can't possibly imagine what it's like for guys today, because they've got these huge bills. They've got these mansions all over the world. Then they look around and say, 'Oh, my God. I have to pay for this, and I have to pay for that.' That's really tough, which is why a lot of these guys want to wake up in the morning and blame somebody else for their situation."

Which brings us to Glavine, whose thoughts of playing into a 22nd season involve adrenaline more than money. He's one of two active 300-game winners with 305 victories, with 21 years in the majors ...

And with a bruised ego.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.